Table 3.
Summary of study characteristics
| DiGiovani et al [15] |
Hyland et al [17] |
Porter et al [14] |
Radford et al [19] |
Sharma and Loudon [20] |
Wynne et al [18] |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recruitment | Patients with plantar fasciitis not responsive to previous conservative treatment | General Practitioner's surgeries and local gyms | Orthopaedic clinic | Local community (newspaper adverts) | Local community and university | Local community & physician referrals |
| Clinical signs and symptoms | Maximal pain on palpation of plantar fascia origin. Diagnosis of plantar fasciitis by a Physician |
Pain > 3/10 on initial weightbearing. Pain localised at the plantar heel |
Pain localised at the plantar heel. Pain at worst on initial weight-bearing |
Pain localised at the plantar heel. Pain at worst on initial weight-bearing |
Diagnosis of plantar fasciitis by a Physician | Diagnosis of plantar fasciitis |
| Sample size for each group | A: plantar fascia stretch (non weightbearing) n = 51 B: tendo Achilles stretch (weightbearing) n = 50 |
A: Stretch (non weightbearing), n = 10 B: Calcaneal taping n = 11 C: No treatment (control) n = 10, D: Sham tape (Control) n = 10 |
A: tendo Achilles sustained. stretch (weightbearing) n = 54 B: tendo Achilles intermittent stretch (weightbearing) n = 40 |
A: Calf muscle stretch and sham ultrasound (weightbearing) n = 46 B: Sham ultrasound (Control) n = 46 |
A: Stretching exercises (plantar fascia and tendo Achilles) n = 8 B: static progressive stretch ankle brace n = 9 |
A: Counterstrain (non weightbearing) n = 10 B: Placebo non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (Control) n = 10 |
| Mean age (SD, range) in years | A: 44.6 (23-60) B 47.1 (31-60) |
A 34.1(5.9), B 45.5 (12.0), C 40.4 (9.4), D 37.6 (10.1) |
A 45.4 (11.1) B 45.9 (12.1) |
A 50.7 (11.8) B 50.1 (11.0) |
A 40.3 (7.0) B 44.2 (11.3) |
Mean not documented (20-66) |
| Symptom duration. Number of subjects and mean duration or range and percentage if unavailable (months) | A: 20 (10-12), 4 (13-18), 1 (19-24), 9 (25-36), 12 (>36). B: 5 (10-12), 15 (13-18), 8 (19-24), 3 (25-36), 5 (>36) |
Not documented | A: 54% > 6 B: (53%) > 6 |
A Median 13 (4-610) B Median 13 (3-121) |
A 9.2 (7.7) B 12.2 (6.4) |
Not documented |
| Previous conservative treatment n (%) | Not documented | Not documented | A 19 (35), B 17 (43) | Not documented | "Most" | Not documented |
| Body Mass Index Mean (SD) | A 28.2, B 28.4 |
A 26.3 (3.8), B 24.8 (4.4), C 25.4 (4.3), D 23.6 (1.7) |
A 27.7 (5.8) B 29.2 (5.6) |
A: 31.6 (5.8) B: 32.1 (6.5) |
Not documented | Not documented |
| Hours standing per day Mean (SD) | A: 6, B: 5.4 |
Not documented | Not documented | A: 7.5 (5.5), B: 9.1 (3.7) |
Not documented | Not documented |
Abbreviations: SD = standard deviation. Letters A, B, etc refer to group allocation.